Silver has been on a tear in 2025, blasting past $68 per ounce and grabbing headlines everywhere. But here's the thing about contrarian investors: when everyone else starts getting excited, that's when their alarm bells start ringing.
In a recent interview for VRIC Media, commodity veterans Rick Rule and Lobo Tiggre shared why silver's rally actually has them pumping the brakes. "As a contrarian, I gotta say my contrarian wolf whiskers are twitching," Tiggre said, watching the dramatic shift in market sentiment with caution.
The fundamentals aren't imaginary. Tiggre pointed to real supply constraints, particularly in copper mining, which matters because most silver comes as a byproduct of copper production. "There have been four major disruptions in the copper space in 2025. I don't know what that does to the silver supply, but it has to do something," he noted.
Rule has already acted on his concerns, disclosing that he sold off the speculative portion of his silver portfolio weeks ago. He explained the psychological trap that catches most investors: "Most speculators who get the strategy right get the tactics wrong. They speculate in a print that will take four or five years to work, and they have trauma holding position over a long weekend."
Both expect the dollar debasement trade to continue for years, but Rule warned investors to brace themselves for potential 30-50% drawdowns that could seriously test their resolve.
The Gold Calculation
Gold presents a different story. Rule, who has been saving in gold since 2000, maintains a steadfast long-term perspective despite current valuations pushing all-time highs.
"I believe the US dollar likely loses 75% of its purchasing power over 10 years. That's my model," he explained. His projection? Nominal gold prices could increase between 250-400% over the next decade, though he acknowledged being "prepared to be wrong by 50%."
Tiggre emphasized that patience matters more than perfect timing. Consider this: even investors who bought gold at its 2011 peak of $1,900 per ounce have more than doubled their money. "As long as you understand why you bought it and you don't get shaken out, then the history, the track record is that you will come out ahead eventually," he said.
For 2026 and beyond, both remain structurally bullish on gold, viewing temporary corrections as buying opportunities rather than warning signs.
The Uranium Opportunity
Outside precious metals, both analysts singled out uranium as their top watchlist item. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA) has climbed 71% year-to-date, and they see uranium as perhaps the most compelling structural story in commodities.
"In uranium, unlike any other substance, material substance on the planet, we are being freed from the tyranny of the spot market," Rule explained. The unique dynamic here is that uranium's role as a critical input for nuclear energy generation has producers locking in long-term contracts that specify both price and volume, creating unprecedented certainty.
Rule sees exceptional clarity emerging in net present value estimates among uranium junior miners. Over the next five years, he expects these estimates will become "the most certain in the resource space by an order of magnitude."
Tiggre observed that volatile spot prices are masking strengthening fundamentals. "Long-term contract prices up this month. Yep. Price versus value. I think there's really not much more that needs to be said," he remarked.
There's one caveat: uranium's association with artificial intelligence infrastructure could create vulnerability if the AI sector experiences a correction. But both analysts noted that such a downturn could actually offer strategic entry points for patient investors willing to look past short-term noise.
